The Reputation of a Half-Breed House
by Finary Lane
Summary: Hitsugaya Toshiro had to be the scariest Hufflepuff Hogwarts had ever seen. A HP X Bleach crossover
1. Chapter 1

The Reputation of a Half-Breed House

Chapter 1: Wasting Time

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Bleach

Harry watched as Draco Malfoy bragged being the Malfoy heir, trying to impress the first years and asking them the same question he asked everyone. A question that was beginning to make Harry's ears bleed.

"Are you a pureblood?"

The boy he questioned looked decidedly awkward, trying to avoid the judgemental gaze and tucking his books closer to his chest, afraid the older student would make him drop them. Although Harry pitied the boy, he knew the teal eyes and white hair instantly attracted Malfoy. It caught everyone's attention and Malfoy's blood status made him no exception.

The small first year looked up at him, unimpressed.

"My name, Mr. Malfoy," he breathed, " is Hitsugaya Toshiro."

The name meant nothing to Harry. The few lingering, curious students resumed walking. No one gasped; no one gawked. Harry didn't know much about pureblood families, but the name turned no heads. It didn't seem to be one. And yet, Malfoy froze in his place.

It only lasted a second, but it was evident against his usual arrogance. He gathered himself quickly, his sneer back in its rightful place. Harry leaned against the wall behind Malfoy, curiosity nailing him in place.

"Hitsugaya?" He scoffed. "Ridiculous. That bloodline is dead."

Harry stared in confusion. It was a pureblood family? Malfoy's reaction was strange, he had seemed more confused than anything else. You would think that he would be overjoyed to have a new pureblood to impress. Apparently not, concluded Harry, watching Malfoy become increasingly flustered under the cold gaze of Hitsugaya.

"Besides," Malfoy insisted, "You don't have the appearance of one."

Hitsugaya could give Snape a run for his money with that cold look. Harry would never admit it, but he was impressed that Malfoy maintained his composure. under the gaze that had sent shivers down Harry's spine didn't cause a single stutter.

Finally, Hitsugaya broke the silence.

"Freedom to disbelief is yours," he granted."And may you reach your goals in a timely manner, Messrs Malfoy and Potter." The boy gave them a hint of a secretive smile.

With that, he disappeared into a classroom nearby. Malfoy turned and stared. He hadn't known Harry was there until the Hitsugaya pointed him out. The second their eyes met, they came to a mutual understanding.

It was rare for Harry and Malfoy to agree, let alone wordlessly. But as soon as the first year student disappeared, time unfroze and they suddenly felt every second ticking by horribly. They were going to be late. To Potions.

The enemies dashed towards the staircase, forgetting the strange scenario. Unless some miracle happened to land them in Potions quickly, Snape would kill them.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Mislead

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Bleach

A miracle happened. They made it to Potions on time. Ties aksew, hair dishevelled, but on time. Although seeing Harry Potter walk in with messy hair was a regular occurence, seeing it from Draco Malfoy was an abnormality and both together was a downright tragedy. The class stared at them as they walked in, most eyebrows high and some mouths pulled into smirks. Harry and Malfoy each hastily took their seats.

The miracle that allowed them to be on time had presented itself as a mixed blessing. In fact, it hardly seemed like a blessing at all at the time. More like a tasteless prank, courtesy of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, aka the only school in the magical or muggle world that seemed to get a laugh out of attempted murder on its students. Hallways that changed over time, moving staircases, vanishing steps... Thinking about it, it was always the stairs that tries to kill them on a regular basis. That day had been no different. Well, different in the approach, perhaps, but the goal seemed unchanged.

Their race to the stairs had been abruptly halted (or accelerated, depending on how you looked at it) by a thick layer of ice that covered the staircase. Malfoy tried to slow down, only to be knocked forward by Harry trailing close behind him. They fell and slipped down the icy slope, trying to regain their footing but tumbling uselessly despite their efforts. Landing in a heap at the bottom of the stairs, they pulled apart as quickly as possible.

"Bloody half-breed," muttered Draco under his breath as they both started running again. Harry was trying to brush off the dangerous, ice-covered stairs as yet another pecularity of the school, but he noted that Draco was blaming Hitsugaya. He wondered why briefly, before focusing on tearing down the hallway to the Potions classroom. The seconds ticked by painfully as their feet pounded the ground. It was dark (it was always dark, it was the dungeons) and murky corners at such speeds were difficult to distinguish. It bothered Harry, but the upside of the speed was that he would bypass anything creepy lurking in the corners. With the exception of course, of the corner he was running towards (the Potions classroom) and the creepy thing lurking in it (Snape).

They finally reached the door, somehow sparing a a few seconds that they spent trying to catch their breath.  
" 'May you reach your goals,' he says," Malfoy complaine, " 'in a timely manner,' he says.' " Letting out an exasperated breath, he walked into the classroom.

They were stared at. Harry shuffled uncomfortably to his seat, looking at his shoes to avoid the curious gazes sent his way. Snape snorted uncharacteristically, but made no comment. As class began, Ron and Hermione gave Harry questioning glances that he waved off. Gryffindor would lose enough points today without giving Snape more reason to. He would talk to them later.

Glancing around the classroom, he saw Malfoy straightening his tie, having somehow already placed every strand of hair back in order. Probably by magic, Harry admitted to himself. He would ask Hermione for the spell later. It looked pretty useful and his own hair seemed permanently messy. He was quickly shaken out of his reverie, however, when a dark shadow loomed over him. He really should have been expecting it.

" What is, Mr. Potter, the use of Bullfrog warts?" Snape asked. The Gryffindors glared at him, knowing their teacher was trying to whittle away at their points.

"I don't know, sir," replied Harry. Snape paused.

" Ten points from Gryffindor." Ron, Seamus and a few other students rolled their eyes at the predictability of their potions professor. Surprisingly, even a few Slytherins rolled their eyes as well, beginning to tire of their head of house's antics.

" Three warts of a bullfrog. Three feathers of a peacock. A single feather of an Eagle Owl. That is the recipe for Dragon Tonic, used to cure dragons. And related species." Snape turned back towards the rest of the classroom. "And related species," he added as an afterthought.

Most students ignored him, but there was one who always hung onto every teacher's every word: the ever-curious Hermione Granger. Shooting her hand into the air, she launched into her questions before Snape could move on.

"Professor Snape, what do you mean by related species? Do you mean reptiles? Or only certain species?" She held her tongue in hopes of getting some answers. Snape merely gave her a glance before continuing with his lesson. No points removed for talking out of turn, Harry noted, he must be in a good mood.

Harry tuned him out in favour of sorting his own thoughts from that morning. He thought about what Draco had said. 'May you reach your goals in a timely manner.' It had first sounded like an uptight way of saying goodbye. And if he was from some fancy pure-blood family, it made sense. But Malfoy had also called him a half-breed, which was odd because that would mean that he was half wizard, half... something else. And that didn't make much sense either, because apart from premature white hair, the kid didn't seem very inhuman. It wass usually pretty obvious when someone wasn't completely human. Hagrid, for example, was a half-giant. It was easy to tell.

But what had he meant by that? If it wasn't a fancy greeting then what was it? Harry though back to the frozen stairs and froze. Of course, he thought to himself, the ice on the stairs brought us towards our goal, the classroom. And we would never have made it in a 'timely manner' without the ice! So that meant Hitsugaya had known about. Then had he been warning them? No, that didn't make sense. He would have just told them without being cryptic if that was the case. And he had wished for them them to go on the stairs, instead of dissuading them. Then had it been a prank? But what reason could he have for pranking them? And hadn't it been too dangerous for a mere prank?

He didn't have the playful manner of a prankster, so it had to be something else. He tries to think about it from Hitsugaya's point of view. He was walking towards class when he is stopped by an arrogant pureblood grilling him about his blood status. Most students walk by. Some linger curiously before moving on. One stays and listens. No one does anything to help him. It was... revenge, Harry realised with a start. A prank, a warning not to bother him further, but still, it was fair.

It would definetely be a blow on Malfoy's pride to have fallen for a first-year's trick. Harry winced at the thought. Only Slytherins were that tricky, so Hitsugaya would probably be hounded by Malfoy in the Slytherin common room all year. Poor kid. But... he had also pranked Harry. And for Harry, that was a declaration of a prank war.

And Harry had the greatest arsenal for a prank war. Their names: Gred and Forge.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The twerp was nowhere to be found. The twins had looked everywhere, but the kid seemed to have vanished. They had even broken into the Slytherin common room looking for him, but no such luck. Sometimes they saw him round the corner, but whenever they caught up, he seemed to disappear into thin air. It was beyond frustrating for the two pranksters.

And just like that, he evaded their pranks for over a month whole month. The Gryffindors couldn't them anything and the Ravenclaws didn't care. The Hufflepuffs were always tightlipped when it came to helping them find new targets for their pranks; they thought the twins always took it too far. But had they spoken to the Slytherins, they would have known to find the boy in the Hufflepuff common room. He had become an object of fear amongst the snakes, and he was known to appear out of nowhere whenever a Hufflepuff was picked on. It didn't matter if the bullies or the victims were seventh years, the appearance of the diminutive first year sent them running. Hitsugaya Toshiro, the house of Slytherin knew, had to be the scariest Hufflepuff Hogwarts had ever known.

However, he was hardly ever inside the school. He spent his time in the forbidden forest and on the rooftops of the school. His attendance in class was shaky at best, but he always performed outstandlingly whenever he did show up. Other than that, he could be found inthe Hufflepuff common room, trying to make himself useful but accidentally terrifying half its population , the Hufflepuffs had come to accept him as best they could and appreciated the protection he extended to them, as well as the help he doled out to struggling students. They were all Hufflepuffs after all; they had each other's backs.

It was two weeks before Halloween that they finally found him walking into the Great Hall. It was unusual for Hitsugaya to attend at all since it was less of a hassle to just grab a plate for the kitchens and head back to the common room. But he had allowed his peers to sway him into coming to the Great Hall for once.

Two glitter bombs hit him at once. Hitsugaya was suddenly a green and pink glittering monstrosity that paused in his step before turning towards the two prankster. It took a mere moment and suddenly the two were incased in ice. Professor Sprout sighed in exhasperation. The boy was certainly powerful, but he could be such a handful.

"Toshiro, dear," she said, "Please unfreeze your classmates. But Toshiro wanted to hear non of it. He crossed his arms defiantly.

"No."

"Tosh-"

"Look at me," he waved over his entire body, "This stuff sticks magically! It'll take days to wear off!" With a huff, he he left the Great Hall, much preferring the quiet common room. If only to save himself the embarrassment of looking like a party favour.

Meanwhile, Malfoy looked on in horror before turning towards Harry. It didn't take a genius to figure out why the Weasley twins had targeted Hitsugaya. This entire ordeal had to be fixed immediately, lest things turn even worse. Angering Hitsugaya was not wise.

Uncharacteristically, Malfoy made his way over to the Gryffindor table and straight towards Harry.

"A word, Potter," he demanded as obnoxiously as always.

Harry took in the unusual display of delibrately seeking him out without taunting him. A part of him didn't want to go with Malfoy because it was too dangerous, but the other part of him knew that Malfoy had information on Hitsugaya's powerful display of magic. And Harry Potter was nothing if not curious. He made to get up before Ron interferred.

"Now wait just a minute!" he exclaimed, "Harry isn't going anywhere without us!"

Malfoy sighed in acceptance as if expecting such an outcome.

Outside the Great Hall and under a few privacy charms, Malfoy finally shared what he knew on Hitsugaya.

"You really mustn't provoke Hitsugaya," he began, "I checked out his claims. His magical signature really does correspond to the line of Hitsugaya."

"So?" said Harry, "What does his name have to do with anything? Malfoy sighed.

"A few centuries ago, there was this... trend."

Hermione pierced him with a look that begged him to tell her anything he knew.

"Some witches and wizards believed that half-breed children had more powerful magic and were healthier. Of course, this was proven completely false and many bloodlines dies out back then. Some children of Veela or Aos si were deformed or weren't able to reproduce. It was a huge blow to the pureblood line. Not only that but at the time the dragons had grown much more rampant and many lost their lives to them. There was even one near Malfoy Manor, it was an ice dragon, but my family managed to ward it off for the most part and it kept to its cave."

"Because of all of this, the pureblood line were getting rarer, so many arranged marriages were put in place. An ancestor of mine was betrothed to Hitsugaya Hiroko."

"No way," interrupted Ron, "You're related to the freak!" Hermione elbowed him in the ribs.

"Ronald! Where are your manners?" she hissed.

"No, you nitwit, we aren't related. Let me finish," he cleared his throat. "On their wedding day, Hitsugaya Hiroko never showed to the wedding. She had run off with another."

"Oh this is good," mumbled Ron.

"Must've been a really handsome bloke if he could seduce her away from all the fortune and renown of the Malfoy family," muttered Harry absentmindedly. Malfoy looked surprised that Harry recognized his family's prestige, but steeled himself from the embarassment of the following confession.

"It was the dragon," he said.

"What?" asked Harry and Ron simultaneously. Malfoy took a deep breath.

"Hitsugaya Hiroko ran from her marriage into the Malfoy family with the dragon living in the nearby cave." Despite his usual self-control, he could feel his face burning as he looked at his hands instead of the bewildered faces of the Golden Trio.

Ron burst out laughing. He was laughing so hard, in fact, that he starting wheezing and choking. Harry still looked cofused, but Hermione caught on to what Draco was saying.

"Wait, if she ran off with a dragon, that would mean that Toshiro is-"

"Part-dragon," he filled in for her. "Yes. Hiroko's firstborn lacked draconic features, so she threw him away. Her only heir was her second-born who was said to have wings ans scales. Toshiro must be a descendent of her second-born son."

"That being said, do warn the Weasley twins to heed the school motto. The Malfoys got into quite a bind with the Hitsugayas in the day, and from what I've seen, they haven't changed a bit."

"One more thing. I'm sure you've all realised this by now, but the nature of these privacy wards won't permit you retelling the things we've discussed today. That'll be all."

And just like that, Malfoy was gone.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"Never tickle a sleeping dragon."

George and Fred were still shivering. Even several hours after they had been unfrozen and with several layers of warming charms cast on them, they couldn't shake the infernal cold that seemed to haunt them. Surely, thought Harry, their encounter with Hitsugaya and the information they now had on him would dissuade them from doing anything too drastic.

"Nonsense!" exclaimed George, "We're marauders-"

"And marauders live to break rules-" continued Fred.

"And now that we know there's a rule-"

"So important it's the school motto!"

"Then it is our formal duty, as second generation Marauders-"

"To see it broken," they completed together.

Hermione rubbed her forehead as she released an exasperated sigh. She loved the Weasleys to pieces, but they were such idiots sometimes. Even the irresponsible pair she was usually reprimanding paled. The golden trio accepted that there was nothing more they could do to save the twins as the famous pranksters reviewed every variation of the tickling curse they could think of.

The trio stayed up late that night because the boys had, yet again, left their essays to the last minute and begged Hermione to help them. It was to their surprise that that they found the twins entering the common room so late, and so unusually quiet. And it wasn't the kind of quiet they got before a prank. It was a proper, subdued kind of silence that didn't belong in Gryffindor tower, let alone in the infamous pranksters.

"There was a mistake in the school motto," claimed one of them.

"Never -"

"E _ver,_ "

"Tickle a sleeping dragon," they said, completing each other's sentence as usual.

Harry raised an amused eyebrow at them.

"There was missing an ever," the second twin clarified.

And so the two drifted to there dorm room, still shaking from being frozen earlier that day.

Or at least that was the Harry, Ron and Hermione assumed.

Hitsugaya lay on one of the dangerously sloped rooftops of Hogwarts. His side still hurt from from those damned tickling charms and his throat was parched from the tongue lashing he gave them. He had released dome of the magic he usually kept under wraps to frighten them a bit, but getting all of that magic back in order was always tiresome.

He laid back, observing the stars. The October nights were gradually cooling, and he found that he was enjoying them more and more with every passing night. He dreamed of flying... Of drifting through the cold currents high above. Past cities, past countries, past empires. Gliding above any landscape from high above without needing to mingle with those tiny figures far below. But it could never be idle gliding or drifting...he would ride the skies. Never mind the petty politics of the Ministry of Magic or the Wizengamot, he had greater ambitions than that: he would rule the very sky.

He knew it was a strange, over-ambitious goal. Was it even possible to do so? He didn't know, he only knew how right it would feel. It had been a desire of his for a long time. He wondered why the Sorting Hat had placed him in Hufflepuff rather than Slytherin. He hadn't known what house he would belong to when he first entered the school, but he could see himself with the snakes much better than the badgers. He was ambitious, cold and calculated his moves carefully. But the sorting hat had declared him a Hufflepuff. It had been sorting children for centuries, so it must have known what it was doing. Or it could have been going senile. Who knew if a hat's mind could deteriorate over time?

He had attended flying class with Madam Hooch that day. The dream of flying that had lodged itself so deeply in him had finally been realized... on a broom. It felt so wrong. This wasn't what he was looking for. After a few moments of floating on a flying a flying stick, the disgust he felt at the action was too much and he promptly got down. He had dropped the broom unceremoniously on the ground, refusing to so much as touch the horrible thing again, much to Madam Hooch's chagrin. Hitsugaya had walked out of that class and promised himself never to return, quidditch zealots be damned.

His mind drifted over a thousand things as he allowed his tired body to rest, slowly drifting to a a rare, peaceful sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Note: Fell free to leave a review!

 **Chapter 4**

Hitsugaya woke with a start, his nerves suddenly on end and he jumped to his feet because of the sudden adrenaline. Unfortunately, he had slept on the sloped roof and lost his footing when he jumped. He scrambled to regain it, but slipped completely of the roof and couldn't manage to get a grip on the ledge. He was in freefall.

Panicking, he gripped onto the brick and the ivy but it was cold and slick with morning dew. His hands found purchase on a window ledge that by some miracle had been in just the right spot. He breathed a sigh of relief but he wasn't out of the water yet. The window was shut, and he couldn't afford to spare one of his hands to open it; the ledge was simply too slippery. He was stuck.

Hermione was attempting to tame her hair when she heard a loud banging noise by her window. She put aside her brush and opened it. She had suspected an owl to have come too early that morning and come to deliver its package straight to the dorm, but that wasn't the case. How odd. She wondered what had made that sound. Then she noticed the small fingers hanging onto the ledge. And then the boy hanging by them.

He looked up at her, delighted that someone would open that window this early in the morning.

"Miss Granger, if you could-" he began.

Hermione shrieked in fright.

"Pervert!" she shouted as she kicked him off the ledge.

Hitsugaya was freefalling again, but managed to grip onto the ledge of another window below Granger's. The window opened a mere moment after he caught onto the ledge, and a girl his age leaned out the window.

"Hermione?" she called out, having yet to notice Hitsugaya, "What's the matter?"

The girl's long red hair flew into Hitsugaya's mouth before he could get a word out and he spit it back out quickly. His coughing caught her attention.

"Hitsugaya?" she said, "What are you doing?"

She wrapped her hand around his and pulled him up, much to his relief. Just as she was about to pull him inside, one of her roommates bumped into her from behind, surprising her and making her stumble. Her hand slipped and once again, fell.

He grasped at any purchase he could find, to no avail. He couldn't fly; oh how he wished for that damned broom right then. But he had no broom and no wings. He hit the grounds below with a painful thud and pain spread through him for a moment before he blacked out.

* * *

When Hitsugaya came to, he lay in the Hospital Wing with Madam Pomfrey fretting over him and Vincent Crabbe and Blaise Zabini standing nearby. Both of them were watching him with a sickening kind of fascination. Crabbe's eyes darted over to him nad moved away before glancing at him again, as if he couldn't help himself from staring. As for Zabini, the older boy stared at him like a vulture, a mysterious near-smirk momentarily pulling on his lip before he schooled his expression.

Hitsugaya tuned out Pomfrey's ramblings and let the woman work. He trusted that the school medi-witch would know what she was doing. Instead, he tried to distract himself from the pain by making conversation with the upperclassmen, something he would generally avoid doing, but distraction from pain was a powerful motivator.

"Good morning, Blaise Zabini," he raked out despite the pain in his chest.

Zabini's lips thinned in amusement.

"Good morning, Hitsugaya Toshiro," he returned, "I trust you had a fun time last night?"

Hitsugaya was taken by surprise by the comment.

"Huh?" he replied intelligently.

"Haven't you heard?" said the Slytherin boy with a snicker, "Rumour has it that Hitsugaya Toshiro snuck into Gryffindor tower last night to visit Ginevra Weasley. Of course, Hermione Granger, who happens to be Hitsugaya's lover, caught them together and was so angry she threw him out the window."

Hitsugaya didn't know what to say.

"How long have I been unconscious?" he asked.

"Nearly an hour," replied Zabini in good humour. Everyone enjoyed the Hogwarts rumour mill. Except, of course, the subjects of the rumours. Hitsugaya groaned. Crabbe looked at him with something almost like worry before resuming his nervous scanning of the room. What was putting Crabbe on edge?

More importantly, why was Zabini here? He hadn't interacted with the Slytherin boy before, and doing so for the first time while in the Hospital Wing made him feel uncomfortably vulnerable. A fact he was sure Zabini knew and revelled in.

"What do you want from me, Mr. Zabini?" he questioned warily. His entire body hurt and he did not have the patience for games at the moment. Zabini smiled.

"Of course, I was the one to find you and bring you to the Hospital Wing," said Zabini.

Hitsugaya eyed Crabbe's muscles which gave him an idea who had truly brought him to the Hospital Wing.

"And of course," continued Zabini, "I wished to introduce myself in case I ever call upon the debt."

Madam Pomfrey shook her head in disappointment at the boy before resuming her frantic work. Hitsugaya could feel his body mending itself and the pain receding. Very, very slowly, of course, but he suspected he would be fine by the end of the day. Healing spells were amazing when handled by professionals.

Hitsugaya wondered what Zabini would ask of him. It made sense, of course, to take advantage of the situation like that. Perfectly detestable, perfectly Slytherin. Also perfectly brilliant. Debts were a handy thing to come by, especially in such troubled times. Anxiety gnawed at his mind.

If Hitsugaya hadn't known himself to have a perfect poker face, he would have thought that his anxietey had shown on his face because Zabini gave him a tender smile.

"Don't worry, Toshiro," Zabini said, "I won't ask anything unreasonable of you. I'm quite the fan, actually."

Hitsugaya raised an eyebrow at both the confession and the use of his name.

"You scare the living daylights out of my best friend. Anything that scares my best friend is something that ought to be respected."

"I am no thing," grumbled Hitsugaya.

"Keep telling yourself that, kiddo."

And just like that, Zabini left the room, taking Crabbe with him.


	6. Chapter 6

Hitsugaya was grumpy. If his classmates had thought him perpetually grumpy before, they now stood corrected. Hardly anyone could enter the medical ward without receiving a chilling glare, whether they were injured or not seemed irrelevant to the boy. Ginny and Hermione had tried to visit and apologize only to be chased out of the room by the rant that came. Zabini had tried to earn some of Hitsugaya's trust by bringing him some mints from the Great Hall, only to be scoffed at and threatened by the boy, who claimed he was more than aware of what the Hufflepuff students slipped into those mints when the house elves weren't looking. This shocked Blaise long enough to be thrown out of the medical ward before he knew it.

Needless to say, Hitsugaya was frustrated. He didn't care how many of his bones were broken or how much blood he lost; he didn't want to look weak! And that's who went to the medical ward. The weak, the sick. The broken. He tugged at his bandages but let go when sharp pain stabbed through his side. He would rather be anywhere else. A spot on top of the Whomping Willow he could take. The middle of the Forbidden Forest he could take. The secret second basement of Borgin and Burkes he could take. The medical ward? Merlin, no. Anything but that.

He said as much to Madam Pomfrey. Reapetedly. To the extent that the strict medi-witch eventually conceded to letting him rest in the Hufflepuff dormitory. Normally, she would never concede to such a thing. A boy as proud as Hitsugaya was bound to receive some teasing while being bedridden. But the boy was miserable in the medical ward, and the boy was Hufflepuff for Merlin's sake. His house would surely take care of him; they were renown for their kindness and understanding. With a sigh, she let him go.

The Hufflepuffs, of course, were more than accommodating. They set Hitsugaya up in the common room near the fireplace so that he would stay warm and always have company. They fretted over him and brought him dishes from the nearby kitchens. Hitsugaya was not comfortable with the attention at all but didn't mind it as much as being in the hospital wing. After all, he had protected many students from bullying and backed them up when they were in tough spots. This was his House, these were his housemates. He had backed them up and now they were repaying the favour. It wasn't the same as the hospital wing, where he was on display for anyone to see. Here he could relax a bit, even if it was really too warm.

He could only relax slightly though. Hufflepuff was a wonderful house. The more people, the merrier they became. They really were the friendliest house in Hogwarts. They seemed to thrive off the energy of a crowd which made Hitsugaya feel like an outsider. Howwver, the opposite was true as well. The fewer people were around, the stranger Hufflepuffs seemed to become. It was late night's with stragglers sneaking in after curfew or the occasional early bird that made him realize this.

There were thieves who snuck around, smoothly pickpocketing with a great smile on their face. There were smugglers who brought in strange looking contraptions in the dead of night. There was always some people sneaking into the kitchens, coming back either with something more or something less. There were all sorts of people in Hufflepuff. After all, it was the house that accepted anyone the other houses didn't. Some students thought this meant they were useless and talentless. Hitsugaya thought this meant they were a lot of freaks.

When the thought hit him, he finally understood why he was in this House. He was half _dragon_ for Merlin's sake. He didn't think the students or staff knew, but the Sorting Hat just plucked the information from his mind. Gryffindor was for the bold, courageous and righteous. Ravenclaw was for the curious and brilliant. Slytherin was for purebloods socialites. And Hufflepuff was for everyone else. For the freaks.

He'd heard muggles call wizards freaks before. He supposed that made Hufflepuffs freaks among freaks. That that made him a freak among freaks. He laughed humourlessly.

There was no one in the common room. All the students were in class. That was the only reason he knew it was daytime. There were no windows for sunlight or fresh air to filter through. It was suffocating and all he had to occupy himself with were his own torturous thoughts. He didn't even want to think what Zabini would ask of him. He just needed to be outside.

It was too hot. He felt like he was burning up staying inside all the time. He had never spent so much time indoors before. He always found some rooftop or tree to one and was nearly always outside or near large windows. With his father, they just slept outside or in a cave. None of this ridiculous business with beds and dormitories. And although he recognized Hufflepuff as his House, he hated the common, it as far too stuffy.

He tried to get up only to be forced back down by the pain it caused him. He gritted his teeth.

He supposed, with great reluctance, that he would just have to endure the heat.

 **Author's Note:** Hufflepuff frightens me. They accept literally anyone. You know who else accepted anyone? The Dollars (from Durarara!).


	7. Chapter 7

Hannah Abbott watched the first year boy with fascination. It had been four days since Hitsugaya had fallen off the top of Gryffindor tower, or had been pushed out, or whatever it was that people were saying now. He was asleep now, but she could see that the unrest that had possessed him just the day prior was gone. In fact, he didn't seem injured at all. She shook her head and snuck past him towards her dorm room.

It wasn't possible. He was probably just putting up a brave front. But he was incredibly proud and had tried hiding his pain before. That hadn't stopped her from noticing the winces and the special care he put not to jostle his healing body too much. But now, he seemed just fine.

Madam Pomfrey had declared that he had several broken bones and internal bleeding. Hannah wasn't all that familiar with medicine, but that didn't sound like something that healed that fast. Especially since, for some reason, the salves and healing potions prescribed by Madam Pomfrey had little effect on him. And that was in the event that they could actually get him to take the them. She had seen first-hand had bull-headed he could be.

She quickly changed into her night clothes and slipped under the covers of her bed. She cleared her mind of her worried in order to rest properly. After all, it would do no good to worry too long and be tired the next day. She wouldn't be of any help in that case.

She allowed all the stress in her body to flow out and settled into the mattress. The covers were warm, her breaths were even and soon enough she found herself sinking into a deep sleep.

* * *

"Hannah!"

She stirred at the call, more eager to return to her peaceful dreams than to respond, or worse, actually crawl out of bed.

"Hannah!" Her shoulders were being shaken now. Hannah groaned.

"What do you want?" she slurred out.

"It's the hurt kid, Hitsugaya. His magic is exploding everywhere! We can't leave the Common Room, Hannah. We've tried everything-"

"Woah, woah, slow down," said Hannah, her grogginess vanishing. "What happened?"

The girl who had shaken her awake, Penny, took a few breaths to calm herself before restarting.

"I went down to the common room this morning. You know how I like to head down to the grounds in the morning before breakfast. And I saw that Hitsugaya was sweating like crazy and and panting in his sleep. He's been doing pretty good, so I thought maybe it was just a nightmare or something. I was the only one in the common room, so I tried to wake him up, but the second he opened his eyes he sneezed and had an outburst of accidental magic. There's ice all over the common room! He fell asleep again right away; I think he's sick. Anyways, the doorway has been frozen shut and no one can get it open. On top of that, being in the common room is dangerous. There's more ice that appears whenever Hitsugaya sneezes or coughs, and touching it make it spread onto you. Some of the students have their feet frozen in it."

Hannah's eyes were wide. She pulled on her robes and hastily tied her hair up before heading down towards the common room. Hitsuagaya had been fine the night before, the picture of restfulness. What happened?

Despite Penny's warning, she was caught off guard. When she had said that there was ice everywhere, she had really meant everywhere. Every inch of place was covered in several inches of ice. The floor, the wall, the ceiling. The couches and tables too. The large Hufflepuff fireplace next to Hitsugaya looked as unfit for fire as could be. And it was _freezing._

There were some students at various places that were indeed frozen to the ground. One girl had her entire lower body encased in ice. Most, however, had nothing but their feet in it. She only recognized Ernie Macmillan, the others were older than her. They were viciously pulling this way and that to free their feet to no avail. Spells for cutting, breaking and melting barely affected the ice. Everyone was panicking.

Hitsugaya himself was sniffling in his sleep. His face was flushed, it looked like he had fever. This was bad. Cases of accidental magic when wizards were ill were nothing to scoff at, especially since first-years often had very little control of their magic in the first place. And it looked like Hitsugaya had a knack for ice-based magic.

Hannah didn't know what to do. Why did Penny come to her, anyway? She wasn't a prefect or an upperclassman. She didn't know any special magic, she didn't know how to fix this. It wasn't as if she was Harry Potter or something.

She felt dread seep through her pores. If they couldn't get out of the common room through the door, then they coudn't get out at all. They were in the basement: there were no windows. Even if they knew how, they couldn't apparate on Hogwarts grounds. They couldn't leave through the fireplace since the fire was out because of the ice. Besides, she didn't even know if they connected to the Floo network. They couldn't send a scrawny first year up the chimney of the fireplace either. Magical fireplaces were enchanted to simply get rid of the smoke. There was no chimney.

A portkey then? She didn't know how to make one, but surely someone in Hufflepuff must know. For sure.

"Hey Ernie?" she called, "Do you know anyone who might know how to create a portkey?"

Macmillan paused in his fight against the ice. He thought about it for a moment, catching up with her train of thought. She loved that about him. He always seemed to be able to follow everyone's thought processes, even if he disagreed with them.

"I believe Bernard Bishara in sixth year does. Try him." He smiled uneasily at her. "And Hannah? Don't forget us here."

She looked at him seriously for a moment before nodding. As funny as it might look, it really wasn't. The ice was dangerous and they were after all trapped with no way out. She could only hope this Bernard Bishara might be able to create a portkey so that they could send for help.

And if they failed, surely the rest of the school would notice. Right?

Still, she wanted them to solve this themselves. Everyone always looked down on Hufflepuff. And even though they were all trapped and panicking, there was a part of her that didn't want to send for help. She didn't want to go crying to Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Hufflepuff was competent too! They were wizards too! She wanted to solve this with a swish of her wand and show that Hufflepuff didn't need help. Hufflepuff was the help _ful_. They gave out help to others, not the other way around.

She shook away the inane thoughts. Her stupid pride didn't matter. There were kids younger than her here in danger. There was no food in the common room and she could feel her own stomach growling at the thought of food. Her housemates were frozen to the ground and her wand-waving had proven useless against it.

Jutting up her chin, she walked to the sixth year dorms.

* * *

 **Author's Note: If you would like to add your input or have some suggestions, let me know in the comments or PM me.**


	8. Chapter 8

"Come on, Bernard. We need you!" exclaimed Hannah.

Bernard rubbed the back of his neck.

"I don't know Hannah. Portkeys are tricky; I only know how to make them properly for a few locations…." He looke away from her, certain he would be unable to resist her request if they made eye contact too long.

"Well you must know someplace near Hogwarts! Or even inside of it. It would be such a great help to everyone if you knew how to make one that could lead to someplace in the castle. Can you that for everyone?" she plead.

He shifted from foot to foot and sighed.

"Oh, alright. I'll do it. But I only know how to set up a portkey for one spot inside Hog-"

Hannah interrupted Bernard's ramblings with a hug, leaving him a spluttering mess.

She thanked him and left Bishara to do whatever it was that needed to be done to create a portkey. Heading back to the common room, she told Ernie that Bernard was working on it and tried to help with ice to no avail. Hitsugaya still looked sickly and no one dared approach him for fear of being turned to icicles.

"Merlin!" exclaimed Ernie in frustration. "When Bernard is done with that portkey, I want to go with him to get me out of this ice! If I stay here any longer, I think I'll go mad!"

A bit of running between the common room and Bishara's room and the portkey maker caved to Ernie's demands. He trudged into the common room a few minutes later with a broken quill and stood next to Ernie with it. Ernie wrapped his finger around it and seconds later, he felt warm.

The ice was gone, and feeling was quickly returning to them, but he had to latch onto Bernard for support. He couldn't see very far, it was too steamy, but the floor beneath him was fine marble that seemed to emanate heat. The portkey had worked. But where were they.? He turned to Bernard and asked.

Bernard looked forward into the steam, refusing to meet Ernie's eyes. He answered in a low voice, barely above a whisper.

"Welcome, Mr Macmillan, to the Slytherin girls' lavatory."

 **Author's note:** It's been so long and this is so short. I'm sorry.


End file.
